Civil Fraud and Investigations

A Civil Fraud quarterly round-up (2nd quarter 2021)

In the recent case of Secretary of State for Health (“NHS”) v Servier Laboratories Ltd (“Servier”), the Supreme Court considered whether in cases involving loss caused by unlawful means, the unlawful means must have affected a third party's freedom to deal with the claimant. This is known as “the dealing requirement”.

A Civil Fraud quarterly round-up (1st quarter 2021)

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, 2020 was an incredible year for crypto assets.  Largely driven by the increased demand from institutional investors, Bitcoin shattered its previous price records. However, its pseudonymous nature and the ease with which it allows users to instantly send funds anywhere in the world makes crypto assets appealing to criminals.

What happens when a director commits fraud by misappropriating company assets?  Or what of the director who continues trading knowing that the company has no realistic prospect of paying its debts as and when they fall due? To whom does a director owe duties at that point and what recourse is there against that director? This article explores these questions.

A Civil Fraud quarterly round-up (4th quarter 2020)

In the recent case of Barrowfen Properties Ltd v (1) Girish Dahyabhai Patel (2) Stevens & Bolton LLP (3) Barrowfen Properties II [2020] EWHC 2536 (Ch), the High Court extended the iniquity exception to breaches of a director’s statutory duties.

A Civil Fraud quarterly round-up (3rd quarter 2020)

The Law Society Gazette and Third Sector recently reported that a number of charities, including Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, Yorkshire Cancer Research, the British Heart Foundation and the National Trust, issued a claim against a former solicitor, Linda Box. They claim to have been deprived of a legacy gift from a Will of which she was the co-executor. Box was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2017, having admitted to 12 offences of fraud, theft and forgery while working as a senior partner at a firm of solicitors in Wakefield, having stolen approximately £4 million. The fraud is said to have been conducted using a process known as “teeming and lading” whereby money is moved between client accounts to hide a shortfall or theft.

A search order, made pursuant to section 7 of the Civil Procedure Act 1997 and CPR Part 25, is one of the most draconian orders the English civil courts can make.  No Respondent really wants a search team to enter their premises but because of Covid -19 the search team is even less welcome than usual.

A Civil Fraud quarterly round-up (2nd quarter 2020)

In a recent case, Ward & Ors v Savill  [2020] EWHC 1534 (Ch), the judge had to grapple with the question - can a claimant rely on an earlier judgment granted in one case involving different parties to enable it to bring a new claim against a different defendant without having to re-plead and prove the facts and matters it relied on in the first case?

I have always had a soft spot for the Black Swan jurisdiction: nothing to do with the law, but because it reminds me of my previous study of philosophy and the use of “all swans are white” as an example of falsification theory.  

In the recent case of Georgallides –v- Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [2020] EWHC 768 (Ch), the High Court grappled with the question of how the maxim “fraud unravels all” should apply to disqualification undertakings given pursuant to Section 8A of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 (“the CDDA”).

It has been widely reported that fraudsters are currently seeking to exploit the situation with COVID-19. Alarmingly, Action Fraud reported an increase in coronavirus related fraud by 400% in March. In this blog we outline some of the critical questions, which all charities, irrespective of size and stature, should be asking themselves to identify areas of risk and detect fraud and how to best respond if the charity has been a victim of fraud.

In the recent case of Sell Your Car With Us Limited v Sareen [2019] EWHC 232 (Ch) the Insolvency Court were asked to determine whether the ultimate victim of an email hacking fraud, Mr Sareen, was liable in contract and/or tort to Sell Your Car With US Ltd (the “Company”) for causing the fraud by failing to take reasonable care over the security of his emails and/or take reasonable control over his email security.

February 2020 - Police say they have arrested more than 40 people in a crackdown on courier fraud involving over 3,000 victims. Police have reported that there has been a recent significant increase in these cases with total losses reported to the police of over £12 million. There are reports of individuals losing significant sums of money to these scams, such as a couple losing nearly £1million of their life savings and pensions and one victim losing £400,000.

Applications in the civil courts for contempt of court are becoming more regular and we have previously written blogs on this topic : It's only a court order, who cares? - Contempt of Court & Contempt of court: the prospect of prison, even before proceedings are issued.

From 31 March 2020, the UK’s six largest banking groups will start checking whether the name entered on a bank transfer matches the names of the recipient bank account. It is hoped the move will combat transfer scams and errors and make it less likely customers’ money ends up in the wrong hands.

Kroll's 11th annual edition of its Global Fraud and Risk Report, released at the end of 2019, highlights that 38% of businesses in the UK suffered loss as a result of fraudulent actions of persons within the company or organisation in the year from March/April 2018 to March/April 2019.